Study of Natural products Adverse Reactions (SONAR) in children seen in mental health clinics: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundPaediatric mental health patients frequently use natural health products (NHP) in addition to prescription medications, but very little is known about adverse events and possible NHP–drug interactions.ObjectiveTo determine: (1) the prevalence of paediatric mental health patients taking prescription medications only, NHP only, both NHP and prescription medications concurrently or neither; (2) which prescription medications and NHP are most commonly used in paediatric mental health populations and (3) adverse events experienced in the last 30 days (serious and non-serious).DesignCross-sectional surveillance study.SettingPaediatric mental health clinics.Population/interventionOn their first clinic visit, paediatric mental health patients were provided with a form inquiring about prescription drug use, NHP use and any undesirable event experienced in the last month.ResultsOf the 536 patients included in this study, 23% (n=120) reported taking only prescription medication(s), 21% (n=109) reported only NHP use, 21% (n=112) reported using both NHP and prescription drugs concurrently, and 36% (n=191) reported using neither. Overall, there were 23 adverse events reported; this represents 6.3%, 2.8%, 10.8% and 0.6% of each population, respectively. The majority of patients who experienced an adverse event reported taking more than one NHP or prescription drug. No serious adverse events were reported.ConclusionNearly half of the paediatric mental health patients in this study were taking NHPs alone or in addition to prescription medications. Active surveillance identified multiple adverse events associated with NHP and prescription drug use; none were serious. Healthcare professionals were encouraged to initiate conversations regarding NHP use.

Adverse Events of Mind-Body Interventions in Children: A Systematic Review

“…Like other fields [ 70 , 71 ], MB would benefit from the development and validation of tools to measure associated AEs. Active surveillance is another means of improving the identification and reporting of adverse events [ 72 , 73 ]. Only if AEs are known, can risks be mitigated and safety enhanced.…”

“…The lack of adverse event reporting in the majority of included studies warrants caution in interpreting these results, as lack of reporting does not necessarily mean lack of events. Observational research is the foundation for advancing patient safety and several scales exist to help assess the likelihood that an AE is attributable to an intervention [ 72 , 74 ].…”

Study of natural product adverse events in adult HIV‐infected patients in Canada

“…The severity of a reported AE was assessed using version 4.0 of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). The CTCAE system was utilized as this study is part of a larger body of SONAR (study of natural product adverse reactions) work and has been standard for classifying AEs in previous SONAR papers [22,23]. Additionally CTCAE has become widely accepted/used outside of oncology of AEs [24][25][26][27].…”